podiatry

its already half a year doing this program in the 1st year of my uni. as time goes by, many will ask me whether i am really interested in the feet making me sound like a feet maniac or a serial rapist/killer that hunts for my victim tru their feet. and i guess people are just curious that why there are people willing to spend the rest of their life looking at problematic foot/feet.

i had an uncle who use to say being a doctor is a depressing occupation. quoting him "everyday you go to work and see people in sickness, agony and pain. you also will feel depress". maybe some might say doctors earn tonnes of money from their job. but i must say doctors, dentist, podiatrist and many more health care professions earn their daily bread and butter from the suffering from other people. isn't it cruel??

back to my future health care profession as a podiatrist, its kinda disappointing that each time before i start explaining or while i am explaining what is podiatry, question such as 'do you do feet reflexology' or 'are you studying how to massage the sole of the foot' or similar question like those. nevertheless, as i explain, different reaction appears from their faces.

i will here by explain what are the tasks a podiatry will do. from my understanding, podiatrist are people who care for the foot/feet. and the word 'care' here meas we take care of the overall health of the feet. a simple comparison i can make is podiatrist is a specialist to the feet as dentist is a specialist to the feet. and yes, we get to stick needles into peoples feet and then cut their nail off. gross?? better not get and in grow nail then.

things we do ranges from treating feet disorder, nail trimming, care for wounds on the feet, making orthodontics, improving balance, reducing fall-risk, and many many more. those that continue can upgrade to be a foot surgeon which allow him/her to cut open people's feet to change their toe arrangements. hahaha.. not interested in surgery?? how about forensics?? go n train under the FBI to read footprints and help the police to solve cases. no i am not joking. my lecturer is one.. hahaha..

so who i will be treating?? podiatry sees patients from babies to old people. thou there are more elderly patients needed foot care compare to babies. this is due to the inability for the elderly to cut their toe nails properly therefore we will help deal with their nails. also, we are involve heavily in diabetic patients where we try to prevent their toes, feet or leg being cut off from erm.. rotting?? other stuff such as improving posture of the body by altering the feet, improving footwear, doing research for better making better shoes for big shoe companies is also one of our future of choice.

till today, i still can't come out with a solid answer on why i ended up in podiatry and i will be making money out of people's feet miseries. maybe i will go, "oh, he has 3 in grow nails =) my lucky day~" ok.. dats evil.